Body shaming has become commonplace even in educational institutions. Stratford High School principal in South Carolina is at the receiving end of condemnation after she has delivered some major dress code instructions to her ninth and tenth grade students during an assembly gathering.
A local television station, WBCD-TV got its hands on an audio recording of the principal saying, âI have told you this before, I am going to tell you this now, unless you are a size zero or two and you wear something like that, even though youâre not fat, you look fat.â
The principal named Heather Taylor has since given the explanation for her advice saying that she did not mean to âhurt or offendâ any of her students and has further reportedly made an attempt at addressing the studentsâ grievances to give them the assurance that she is âone of their biggest fans and invested in their success.â
Some students angrily retorted to her comments on the social media, while many parents too have since taken to the social media especially Stratford’s Facebook community to express their shock and disgust at Taylorâs advice and complained that the principal, a person whom the students should look up to has not directly addressed her comments as yet.
According to Taylor, the leggings are not meant to be worn as pants alone as they âshow everythingâ if and when worn like that,â as stated in the recording.
Speaking against the principalâs distasteful thought of teaching girls in their growing-up ages that they should not wear what they like if they do not conform to the societal standards of body weight, one of the students, Allison Veazy said to WCBD-TV, âI wear leggings outside of school and I wear leggings when I go and hang out with my friends, and to think that someone would think that I look like a stuffed sausage â that was kind of hurtful.â
Like Veazy, there were many other students who felt targeted by Taylorâs body-shaming comments because they were not a size zero.
Body shaming and setting a forceful dress code for students is growing to be an increasing phenomenon that has no reasoning behind its implementation.
Photo credits: WCBD-TV